1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless sheet attached to an article and an information providing system which uses the wireless sheet to provide information on the article.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a wireless IC tag (or card) which transmits radio signals to and receives radio signals from an external transmitter/receiver has come into use. The wireless IC tag has no power source, and reads or writes data in a memory of the tag in response to a radio signal sent from an external transmitter/receiver.
A number of techniques using the wireless IC tag have been developed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2002-83250 discloses a technique of obtaining information on an article from identification data stored in a wireless IC tag read by a handheld reader having a transmitter/receiver. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2004-362205 discloses a technique of obtaining information on an article from a database connected to a network, using identification data of the article read from a wireless IC tag.
When managing inventories or sorting deliveries using wireless IC tags, a handheld reader as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2002-83250 is commonly used. However, when an article is large, or when a user's hands are occupied, a handheld reader is difficult to operate.
Also, since a reader reads information by being brought close to a wireless IC tag, if there exist plural wireless IC tags within range of a radio signal sent from the reader, it is not possible to discern which wireless IC tag has been read by the reader.
The present invention has been made with a view to addressing the problem discussed above, and provides an information providing system in which an information notifying apparatus displays information needed by a user on its display in response to an information request command provided from a wireless sheet.